BASELINE SURVEY ON GENDER

AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

FINAL REPORT

SUBMITTED TO

ASSOCIATION OF CHURCH AGRICULTURAL

PROJECTS (ACDEP) TAMALE

BY

AMAMA K. HABIB AND AL-HASSAN SEIDU

SEPTEMBER 2004

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Gender and Reproductive Health Baseline Survey would not have been possible if
the stakeholders involved did not give us their support and co-operation. The following
organizations, groups and individuals therefore deserve our gratitude.

We wish first of all to express our sincere gratitude to the Management and staff of
ACDEP for giving us the opportunity to conduct the baseline survey.

Special thanks go to the Assemblymen, Traditional and opinion leaders of the survey
communities (Nanton, Kanshegu, Langa, Tingoli, Fihini and Sakuba) organizing the
focus groups as well as permitting us into their communities for the survey to be
conducted.

To the interviewees and focus groups (fostered children and their aunties/
grandparents/uncles, school children and their parents/guardians, victims of school
dropout, non-school going children, kayaayoo returnees and their parents/guardians,
victims of teenage pregnancy, victims of domestic violence, widowhood rites and
early/forced marriage) we are very grateful for your time and patience in providing us
vital information especially as the survey was conducted during the peak of the farming
season.

The Manager of Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services (AGREDS)

deserves our gratitude for the information he readily provided which has contributed to
the enrichment of the report. The same gratitude goes to the Programme Manager of
RAINS/CAMFED for information on root causes of kayaayo in Tolon/Kumbungu
district.

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Our appreciation goes to the Executive Directors of Girls Growth and Development
(GIGDEV) and Common Grounds for their readiness to provide us with information on
vocational training for school dropouts and kayaayoo returnees.
We are very grateful to the Principal of Dagbon Ninneesim Karinzong of the Ghanaian
Danish Communities Programme (GDCP) at Dalun for sharing his experiences in the
training of kayaayoo returness with us.

We also wish to acknowledge the efforts of the staff of GES district offices in Tolon and
Savelugu for providing us statistics on school enrolment and dropout and the District
Directorates of those districts for information on antenatal aatendance.

Our sincere gratitude goes to all teachers in the survey communities for providing us with
information on school enrolment and dropout.

The field Assistants, Bawa A Kassim, Wahab Abdul-Salam, Abdul-Somed Mohammed

Awal and Nureedeen Issahaku deserve special gratitude for assisting us in data collection.

Finaly, we thank Ramatu Ziblila for typing the report.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

CAMFED - Cambridge Female Education

RAINS - Rural and Information Network Services
GDCP - Ghanaian Danish Communities Programme
JSS - Junior Secondary School
SSS - Senior Secondary School
GIGDEV - Girls Growth and Development
AGREDS - Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services
GES - Ghana Education Service
GCEU - Girl Child Education Unit

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Acronyms
List of Tables
Executive Summary

Chapter one: Introduction 1–6

Chapter Two: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents 7–9
Chapter Three: Girl childEducation 10 –
15
Chapter Four: Kayayo 16 –
18
Chapter Five: Teenage Pregnancy 19 –
20
Chapter Six: Forced/early marriage/Child fostering 21 –
24
Chapter Seven: Domestic violence and widowhood rites 25 –
26
Chapter Eight: Conclusions and recommendations 27 –
33

References 34
Appendices 35 - 41
Questionnaire
Focus Group Discussion Guide
Checklist for Secondary Data
List of Field Assistants

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List of Tables
Table Page

Table 1: Name of communities, districts and sample sizes by sex 5

Table 2: Age of respondents 7
Table 3: Level of education 8
Table 4: Marital status 8
Table 5: Religion 8
Table 6: Annual income (‘000 cedis) 9
Table 7: Primary net enrolment ratios by district in percent – 2002/03 11
Table 8: JSS net enrolment ratios by district in percent – 2002/03 11
Table 9: SSS net enrolment ratios by district in percent – 2002/03 11
Table 10: Children attending school by district 12
Table 11: Has any of your children ever dropped out of school? 12
Table 12: Drop out rate from school by district 13
Table 13: Causes of dropout from school by district in percent 15
Table 14 Reasons of Kayayoo by district by sex 17
Table 15: Age group of Kayayoo by district by sex (%) 18
Table 16: Number of those who leave for Kayayoo and returnees 19
Table 17: Age of teenage mothers by district 20
Table 18: Effects of teenage pregnancy 20

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Table 19: Age at early marriage by district 21
Table 20: Reasons for child fostering (%) 22
Table 21: Types and effects of domestic violence 25
Table 22: Key indicators for project management 33

Executive Summary

The Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) in collaboration with Maata-N-Tudu

and Bolga Diocesan Development Office is implementing a Gender and Reproductive Health
project in Northern Ghana. The project aims to contribute to the eradication of gender-based
discrimination as a way of promoting women’s reproductive health status and rites.

A base-line survey was conducted in six communities of the Tolon/Kumbungu and

Savelugu/Nanton districts of the Northern Region of Ghana.

The primary objective of the survey was to investigate gender and reproductive health issues
affecting rural women in Northern region of Ghana with the aim of building into the project
implementation process mechanisms for ensuring proper documentation, information sharing and
tracking change.

Specifically, the Objectives of the study were:

 To explore the experiences and perception of respondents in relation to gender and

reproductive rites in the various communities specifically in relation to Non-education of
the girl child; the Kayayo syndrome; Teenage pregnancy; Gender-based violence;
Forced/Early marriage; Widowhood Rites; and Child fostering;
 To solicit information on the situation of each of the issues
 To solicit information on the prevalence rates of each of the issues
 To obtain information on the effects on and consequences of issues on the health of
young girls and women in the research communities.
 To collate the views of community and opinion leaders in relation to the above practices
and suggestions for addressing the situation.

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  To obtain information on general findings and recommendations for possible intervention
areas.

At the output level, it was expected that a baseline report would be prepared that will provide
information on the:
• Current information on statistics, data and situational analysis on gender and reproductive
health issues.
• Information on prevalence and incidence rates of the issues.
• Information on the effects/consequences of issues affecting young girls and women.
• Recommendations for project intervention based on the findings of the survey.

Data was obtained mainly from primary and secondary sources. Specifically, primary (both
quantitative and qualitative) data were gathered through the use of interviews to generate both
qualitative and quantitative data, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), secondary data collection
from both the district and regional levels of the GES, WAJU, WAJU, CHRAJ, NGOs (GDCP,
RAINS/CAMFED GIGDEV AGREDS, COMMON GROUNDS, UNICEF,

Literature was reviewed from publications, report of previews studies conducted on the same
issues, books, presentations made by experts/experienced people in gender and
reproductive issues during seminars etc.

Sampling Techniques
Population of study

Sampling Procedure and Sample size:

In all, six (6) communities were visited during the survey. Three communities (Saakuba, Fihini
and Tingoli) were studied in the Tolon-Kumbungu district, whereas Kanshegu, Langa and Nanton
were visited in the Savelugu-Nanton district. The communities were selected purposively to avoid
inaccessibility and also to obtain responses from ‘small’ (Saakuba, Fihini, Kaanshegu and Langa)
and ‘big’ (Nanton and Tingoli). Sampled communities were also selected in order to represent the
zones in the districts geographically. For example, Saakuba was drawn from the Kumbungu zone,
Fihini from Tolon zone and Tingoli from Nyankpala zone. The names of the communities visited
and the number of people interviewed in each community are presented in Appendix D. Sample
sizes were allocated based on the estimated population for each community.

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Two hundred individuals (hundred individuals from each district) were randomly interviewed.
The sample size was made up of 130 women and 70 men. Women constituted the majority (65%)
of the sampled size because they were perceived to be more vulnerable to the gender and
reproductive issues outlined in the study objectives.

Data were collected on the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, causes of low

school enrollment and drop out rates, causes and effects of kayayoo, causes and effects of teenage
pregnancy and domestic violence against women and children. The rest were data on early
marriage and widowhood rites. Four field assistants were recruited for data collection (See
Appendix D).

The questionnaires were pre-tested in order to improve upon the quality and to minimize errors
that arose out of the difficulty of translating English into Dagbani. The questionnaires were pre-
tested at Kanvili, Salamba, Gumbihini and Aboabo. Before the pre-testing, field assistants were
trained on important issues relating to the fieldwork (for example, community entry strategies,
how to conduct field interviews, how to organize focus group discussions and how to record
information). Four individuals (2 men and 2 women) were randomly selected and interviewed
during the pre-testing exercise. The pre-test results were discussed and finalized in a meeting.
Factors that were considered in analysing each question were clarity, interpretation into local
language, logic and suitability. At the end of the meeting, some questions on the original
questionnaires were either dropped or modified whereas new questions were added.

Data Analysis:
Data gathered were subjected to systematic content analyses. The quality of data was checked and
cleaned each day after fieldwork for accuracy and consistency. Data was analyzed manually and
by the use of SPSS computer software. Information is presented in tables using frequencies and
percentages.

CONCLUSIONS

4.1Girlchild Education

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4.1.1 School Enrolment
The age distribution of school going children in primary school (including JSS) is between 8-16
years. Children in the rural communities are enrolled at a later age than their counterparts in the
towns and cities They start from primary one (1) at the age of eight (8) years instead of pre-
school age of 4-5 years. This could be due to the absence of early childhood development centres
in most of the rural communities and the fact that majority of the parents are self employed as
such are not under pressure to enrol their children in pre-school so as to enable them perform
their work. Among the three survey communities in Tolon/Kumbungu district, only Sakuba has
an early childhood development centre. In Savelugu/Nanton district all the three communities
visited has pre-schools. However the pre-school in Langa was opened in 2004/2005 academic
year. All the survey communities have one primary school each. With the exception of Nanton,
none of the
Communities has a Junior Secondary School (JSS). There is no Senior Secondary School
(SSS) in any of the communities. Children from the other communities walk to the
nearest community where there is a JSS to attend classes and back home.

Gender disparity in enrolment exists in all the survey communities as more boys are enrolled in
school than girls. More girls are out of school than those enrolled in school. Enrolment of both
boys and girls decrease as they climb the educational ladder. However, some where along the
line, (mostly between P3-P5), enrolment increases as School For Life (SFL) graduates are fed
into the formal school in those classes. Dropout rate was therefore, difficult to determine.

Causes of low enrolment

Poverty is the leading cause of low enrolment in school. This is caused by low crop yields and
lack of viable off-farm income-generating activities during the dry season. Even though women
and a few men engage in off-farm income-generating activities, the income earned is not
adequate to take of their basic needs as well pay their children’s’ school fees due to lack of start-
up capital, business management skills and access to output markets.

Illiteracy of parents and guardians, ignorance of the importance of education, child fostering, and
large family size (resulting in preference given to enrolment of boys) also contribute to low
school enrolment. Also, foster parents do not consider the education of their fostered children as a
primary responsibility though, fostered children account for a very large proportion of children in
all the communities in the survey districts.

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A very significant cause of low enrolment is the lack of jobs for school graduates which
discourage most parents from enrolling their children in school as they see education to
be of no benefit. Also, inadequate qualified teachers, lateness, absenteeism, truancy of
teachers, and inadequate teaching and learning materials (resulting in poor performance
of children) negatively affect enrolment of children in school. The inability of most
children enrolled in school to go beyond J.S.S. or S.S.S. is a disincentive to the enrolment
of the junior ones in schools.

Lack of female role models emerging from those communities, perception that education
transforms girls to lead immoral lifestyles, inadequate teaching staff, and domestic chores, the
engagement of girls in income-generating activities (I.G.As), the responsibility of girl child
education being the sole responsibility of mothers (who are mostly illiterates), lack of
understanding of the value of education and high demand for farm labour.

School Drop Outs

Drop out age of school children range between 15-20 years. These are the ages at which
children are either in J.S.S. or S.S.S. Many parents in the rural communities find it
difficult to pay school fees when their children gain admission into S.S.S. or tertiary
institutions as a result, the children drop out of school. There is a higher rate of drop outs
of girls in both survey districts compared to that of boys. Tolon/Kumbungu has a higher
dropout rate of children than Savelugu/Nanton district.

Causes of drop out from school

High school fees is the major cause of drop out of both boys and girls in the two survey districts
(50% in Tolon- Kumbungu and 74% in Savelugu-Nantong). Early marriage, teenage pregnancy,
the need to assist parents in their farms or homes, poor academic performance and the desire to
look for a job also cause children to drop out of school. The high rate of failure among secondary
school leavers, perception that education is non-beneficial, lack of job opportunities for school
leavers, high illiteracy rate, child fostering, domestic chores, poor nature of schools and lack of
accommodation for teachers in the communities are also causes school dropout. Some girls drop
out of school to migrate to the cities to embark on kayaayo.
Inadequate teaching staff and lack of supervision by current supervisors result in absenteeism and
punctuality of teachers with the consequence of poor performance of the pupils some of whom
eventually dropout of school. Some children on their own drop out of school in order to enjoy the
freedom their colleagues who are out of school are enjoying. Degeneration of the moral fibre in
the rural communities has led to school children engaging in school sexual relations which divert
their attention from studying with the eventual drop out of school due to poor performance.

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The rate at which children drop out of school in the two districts is alarming and if concrete steps
are not taken, future enrolment of children in school will be affected seriously. Most of the
children who dropout of school do not have employable skills to enable them work to earn a
living On the other hand, they do not want to work on the farms of their parents as they see
themselves to be superior to those not enrolled in school.

KAYAAYO
Reasons For Kayaayo.
- Poverty is the major cause of the migration of girls to the cities to embark on
Kayaayo. This is caused by low yields of crops and absence of viable off-farm
income-generating activities for the youth coupled with lack of job opportunities.
After the off-farm season, most of the youth become seasonally unemployed as such
they migrate to the cities to look for cash.
- Lack of start-up capital and vocational / technical skills compels the youth to migrate
to the cities.
- A large portion of the youth embark on Kayaayo to enable them acquire cooking
utensils, cloths and other materials for marriage. This is mostly due to failure of
aunties to provide the needed utensils for the wedding of their fostered daughters.
- Influence of other girls in the communities by the Kayaayo returnees who return to
home with cooking utensils, sewing machines, cloths, is very high. The
transformation that they (returnees) go through (bleached skin, increase in
weight/size, permed hair etc.) motivates those left back in the community to embark
on the journey to the cities.

Other reasons for Kayaayo are

- Forced marriage.
- Acquisition of cash to pay school fees
- Mockery of those who remain in the communities by Kayaayo returnees,
- To avoid frequent quarrels with their aunties.
- Acquisition of basic needs of young girls.
- Lack of vocational centres in the communities for the youth to acquire
employable skills.
- Adventure.
- Maltreatment by foster mothers
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 - Pressure from aunties and mothers to acquire what their colleagues have acquired
from the cities.

Consequences of kayaayo
Kayaayo has both positive and negative effects. The positive effects are the removal of burden on
parents and aunties to provide cooking utensils which they acquire themselves, ability to pay their
on school fees, acquisition of trade skills and sewing machines.

The negative effects are diseases, STDs, assault psychological trauma, unwanted pregnancy.
Others are exposure to rape, diseases, and theft by sleeping on varenders, broken marriages,
acquisition of sophiscated lifestyles that scares away potential spouses, high rate of teenage
pregnancy as a result of sexual promiscuity among young girls.

Other negative consequences of Kayaayo are prostitution, spread of STDs and HIV/AIDS in the
communities, adultery, and disrespect for parents, husbands (those married before embarking on
the act) the elderly and other members of the communities. Fewer hands for farm work, domestic
chores and off-farm income-generating activities (sheabutter processing) ineptness of parents
(browing money for lorry fare to the cities) and acquiring the habit of taking drugs to reduce
fatigue from carrying over weight loads.

Teenage Pregnanc
Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy that occurs in unmarried girls between the ages of 13-19
years.
The age bracket of victims of teenage pregnancy in the communities is13-15 years.
Antenatal Risk factors detection of pregnant women in the two districts revealed that between 11-
18 % of cases were those of teenage pregnancy.

Causes of Teenage Pregnancy

Major cause of teenage pregnancy is due to the breakdown of moral norms of the society and the
abolition of the cultural practice of puberty rights that used to deter young girls from engaging in
premarital sex.
The deep love for possession of material goods and fashion by young girls prompts them to
accept proposal from men (especially rich men) resulting in sexual promiscuity with the

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consequences of teenage pregnancy. Parents producing too many children that they fail to live up
to their responsibilities resulting in some of the children looking else where for their needs.

The abolition of corporal punishment by children by child rights activitist has contributed to the
total breakdown of appropriate corrective measures of moulding children with young girls taking
advantage of that to misbehave with men leading to pregnancy. The influx of foreign films that
have pornographic traits encourage the youth to imitate blindly what they see. Indecent dressing
by teenage girls exposes them to rape.

Other causes of teenage pregnancy are high bride price, failure of fathers to assume responsibility
over the up bringing of their daughters resulting in waywardness, kayaayo, poverty, indiscipline /
lack of parental control and child fostering. The rest are forced marriages, ignorance of the
consequences of sex, watching of foreign pornographic films by teenagers, use of family planning
contraceptives by teenagers which sometimes disappoint them, and refusal of parents to accept a
man of the choice of a girl.

Consequences of Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy affects the victim’s education as she is forced to drop out of school. It brings
stigmatisation and disgrace to the victim and her family. The victim is also traumatised. Teenage
pregnancy retards the physical and gynaecological development of the victim, complications
during delivery and sometimes death of the victim and he baby in an attempt to cause abortion.

Additional financial burden is placed on the parents of the victim of teenage pregnancy especially
when the boy or man responsible for the pregnancy refuses to accept responsibility.

The educational status of victims is usually JSS pupils and children enrolled in school. Most of
the victims do not have occupation of their own. They are mostly engaged in the work done by
their parents, aunties, or guardian such as sheabutter processing harvesting of groundnuts, picking
of sheabutter and provide farm labour. They therefore rely o their parents or a living. There s a
very prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the survey communities.

Forced Marriage
Forced marriage is an important institution in the Dagbon tradition. Different types of forced
marriages exist in communities. These are betrothal to a friend of the father of the girl or a

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tightened friendship or as a reciprocal gesture for the kind of gesture exhibited by a young man
and to react to a situation where a girl tries to reject/disappoint a man she introduces to the family
as a fiancée who had already paid the bride price. Another type of forced marriage is family
marriage where a girl is given to her father’s relative (nephew) to marry. The prevalence of
forced, marriage is now low as most girls forced into marriage divorce their husbands and
migrate to the cities to embark on kayaayo. Thereby disappointing their parents.

Reasons for forced marriage

Parents/guardians force their daughters or nieces to marry men who are not their choice for there
own selfish gains, such as a reciprocal gesture to support (financial, material, labour) obtained
from rich-men, to tighten friendship ties. Other reasons are the desire of a man to marry a girl
from a family with a good track record of good behaviour, to prevent a girl from going wayward
by indulging in pre-marital sex. Girls with physical deformity or mental retardation are given to
an old man to marry, as no young man would have the desire to marry such a girl.

The consequences of forced marriage are lack of love for each other, adultery,
unhappiness, extreme case and suicide.

Early marriage.
Victims of early marriage in the survey communities are between the ages of 13-18 years. Most
of them are non-school going. Few of them are JSS dropouts. Reasons given of girls are to
prevent a girl from pre-marital sex/pre-marital teenage pregnancy. Some girls marry early
because their colleagues or friends have married or when they have huge body structures even
tough not yet developed to accommodate a foetus.

Child fostering
Child fostering is an important and cherished traditional practice in the Dagbon, which is
still practiced in the rural communities. There are three types of child fostering. These
are “Pringa” which is a term used to describe a girl given to her fathers sister for up
bringing, “yaanga” is a girl given to her grandmother {either maternal, paternal to assist
her in domestic chores or guide her to toilet, mosque or social function if she happens to
be blind or a boy given to his grandfather to assist him in farming activities or guide him
if he is blind and then “nyalinga” who is a boy given to the mother brother to take care of
him. The most commonly practice is “pringa” foster parents are obliged to train children

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on good moral conduct, cooking, farming or a trade. Aunties are more interested in
adopting female than male children. Her aunt adopts a girl when a brother or sister is
born after her, which is unfriendly at ages of 3-4 years. There is very high reverence of
child fostering in survey districts.

Reasons for child fostering

The major reasons for child fostering is to strengthen family ties or social bonds {90%}.
It brings together an order wise distorted family. Other reasons are to give a child good
training {social virtues} to assist old parent to soothe the heart of the childless so that
they don’t feel hopeless, isolated or dejected.

Effects of child fostering

Child fostering have both positive and negative effects. However the negative effect far
exceed the benefits. Child fostering brings extra pressure on the foster parent as it puts
extra burden on them, in terms of feeding, clothen, medical bills and in few cases, school
fees. It sometimes strains the relationship that existed between the parent and foster
parents of the girl and mistrust among family members. Child fostering also leads to non-
enrolment or dropout of school children, kayaayo, streetism, maltreatment of children and
child labour.

Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is very prevalent in the two survey districts and occurs between husband and
wife, parents and children, between children, between rivals and between household members but
the commonest domestic violence is between husband and wife, and between rivals.

Types of domestic violence

Domestic violence against men by their wives are verbal abuse, wife refusing to talk to the
husband and or have sex with him, cooking bad meals as a way of punishing the man, refusing to
assist him on the farm or refused to wash his clothes or listen to instructions given by the man.

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Domestic violence against women by their husbands are spouse refusing to talk to the woman,
beating her, harassing her for sex and refusal to provide her basic needs. Others are refusal to give
the wife grains to prepare family meals after a misunderstanding, refusal to eat food prepared by
the wife, and issuing her with threats. (Divorce, killing, beating)
Violence against children is not considered a serious problem in the communities though they can
some times affect their physically, psychological or affect their performance in school. Violence
against children include beating by parents and other members of the family, cruel punishment,
denial of food, money for school, forced labour and burning of children hands because of
stealing.

Causes of domestic violence

• Poverty is the major cause of domestic violence in the survey districts. It provokes
husbands at the least provocation. Extra marital affairs of both husbands and wives result
in domestic violence. A very serious cause of domestic violence in the home is the refusal
of a woman to deny the husband sex. The men, who sometimes threaten their wives with
divorce, do not take this act kindly.

• Polygamy is another serious cause of domestic violence between husband and wives and
between wives. It breads jealousy and discrimination. Forced marriage, child fostering,
impatience and tolerance on the part of the husband and wife breed domestic violence
subjecting wife / wives to heavy financial responsibilities / burden (school fees, medical
bills, clothing and other basic needs) without any support by the husband causes domestic
violence. Other causes of domestic violence in the home are use of family planning
contraceptives by women without the knowledge or concern of their husbands, listening
to ill advice from friends, food insecurity.

• Wife’s refusal to cook early

• Unfaithfulness – laziness
• Refusal of wife to work for the men (go to farm or process farm produce)
• No permission before traveling
• Practice Family Planning without the husband’s knowledge
• Disrespect for the man by the wife because he is poor
• Stubbornness

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Effects of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence has no positive effects. However, the negative effects are enormous.
These are divorce, physical damage to the body, waywardness or streetism, child labour,
Kayaayo, arm robbery of the children and in some cases death of the spouse (mostly the
wife).

Widowhood Rites
Traditional and Religious widowhood rites are practiced in Dabgon. However, traditional
Widowhood rites are given way to religious rites. Traditional widowhood rites are harmful as
widows are made to drink concoctions prepared from the sooth removed from the traditional
kitchen. This could contain spider web, excreta of lizards, wall gecko, cockroaches and other
harmful substances, which could have health implications.
Religious (Islamic) widowhood rites, which are now replacing traditional widowhood rites, do
not subject the widow to maltreatment, health hazards and psychological trauma. However, the
duration of confinement, which is four months, affects economic domestic, social and political
activities of the widow.

The external family support system, which used to exit, is now weak. Due to education and social
changes, coupled with the demand on the time of people and economic hardships and decreasing
food security, the widow can no more receive communal support in terms of feeding, cash etc to
take care of herself and her children. She may not even get people to sit by her, as everybody is
busy with economic activities or family.

The model below summarises the root causes of the issues under study:
Poverty is the root cause of almost all the gender and reproductive issues under study. It is the
number one cause of low enrolment and drop out of schools. Most parents in the survey
communities find it difficult to pay high school fees charged by educational institutions especially
for SSS admission and entry tertiary institutions. Those who are enrolled drop out at a certain
stage. Children who are able to get to the Junior Secondary School (J.S.S.) are not able to enter
the SSS because their parents cannot afford the fees charged for entry into the SSS.

Some parents force their daughters to marry rich men in order for them to benefit from the riches
of the man. Poverty is a major cause of domestic violence. The women focus group mentioned

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that when their husbands easily get angry with when they (the women) ask for money to buy soup
ingredients or gains for the family meals or their own needs and those of their children.
According to them, after harvest they do not have conflict with their husbands but as soon as the
food stocks get depleted and the man has no money to buy grains from the market for the family
meals then conflict begins between them Due to poverty, most parents in the rural communities
are unable to pay school fees as a result, majority of children are not enrolled in schools.

Some parents force their daughters to marry rich men in order for them to benefit from the
riches/wealth of the man. Poverty is a major cause of domestic violence. For example, the women
focus group mentioned that their husbands easily get angry with when they (the women) ask for
money to buy soup ingredients or gains for the family meals or basic needs. According to them,
after harvest they do not have conflict with their husbands but as soon as the food stocks get
depleted and the man has no money to buy grains from the market for the family meals then
conflict begins between them.

Due to poverty, most parents in the rural communities are unable to pay school fees as a result,
majority of children are not enrolled in schools. Poverty also is a leading cause of school dropout.
Even though poverty is not a major cause of child fostering, it also is a contributory factor.
Poverty is a major cause of migration of the youth to the cities to engage in kayaayo
Any efforts aimed at addressing problem of kayaayo, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence,
forced marriage, early marriage, forced marriage low school enrolment and school dropout
should be geared towards reducing poverty in the rural communities.

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The objective of the survey was to investigate gender and reproductive health issues in
Tolon-Kumbungu and Savelugu-Nanton districts of the Northern region of
Ghana with the aim of building into the project implementation process
mechanisms for ensuring proper documentation, information sharing and
tracking change. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for the
study. Data were collected from a randomly selected 200 people, consisting of
70 males and 130 females. The findings are that enrolment at Primary, Junior
and Senior Secondary school levels for girls are generally low compared to
boys. Dropout rate for girls is also relatively high. The most important reason
for dropout from school is the inability of parents/guardians to pay fees as a
result of poverty. The main reason for Kayayoo is to make money. Teenage
pregnancy affects victims’ education as well as causing psychological trauma to
them. Teenage pregnancy is also associated with health hazards because victims
are prone to sexually transmitted diseases. Forced marriage is no longer
practiced whereas early marriage in the region is caused by economic reasons as
well as parents/guardians trying to prevent their children from engaging in pre-
marital sex. Child fostering is used as a means of maintaining social bonds or
family ties. The parties to child fostering arrangement (the child, parents and
guardians) have roles and responsibilities. Women are generally more active
participants in the institution of child fostering probably because they play a
significant role as home managers and their greater commitment to ensuring the
welfare of children within the family. The common violence against children
are beating, cruel punishment, denial of food and chop money and child labour.
Violence of any kind brings unhappiness at home and can lead to injury, divorce
and sometimes death. Women and children fear to report most of the violence
against them for fear of receiving further beating or punishment. Widows
undergo certain rites in study area. A number of recommendations are made.

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